The combined lunch for the Wildebeests and At Our Table, held at the Waterfront Restaurant in Port Melbourne, was a great success with over 150 guests attending this excellent venue.

With panoramic views over Port Phillip Bay setting the scene for our Bali Children Foundation fundraiser, we raised over $35,000 with Child Sponsorship, Raffle, Silent Auction and Main Auction items. There was also very positive response to the new sponsorship cards for children needing a sponsor and many guests selected their child at the lunch.

Our sincere thanks to everyone who helped to make the lunch such an enjoyable and successful event. In particular, Lindsay Beer, Rosie Yates, Helen D’Silva, Naomi Sprigg, Nicole Porritt and many others who worked behind the scenes and also helped out on the day.

The annual Christmas Party at Widhya Asih III is always a joy to attend. On Sunday 8th December, BCF Board Members and Supporters travelled with five young men from Camberwell Grammar School who were doing an “alternative” schoolies – visiting and helping at some of our Children’s Homes.

Over several years, BCF and our supporters have funded projects at Widhya Asih and each year when we visit we see new and improved developments. This year the majority of the building and renovations are complete and the Children’s Home is a credit to Pak Franki. Under his leadership, the Home has flourished and the children are healthy, happy and well cared for.

The children at Widhya Asih work very hard to perfect their performance for the show. The Gamelan band, dancers, Silat demonstrators and entertainers were highly polished and we were treated to a wonderful show before the gifts were handed out to the children. Each child received useful items such as school shoes, back-packs, clothes, stationery and toiletry items.

Clinton, from Camberwell Grammar, treated the children to a performance with his saxophone and flute, instruments not seen or heard by most of them. He was accompanied by Pak Subur, the blind music teacher at Widhya Asih.

The boys presented Pak Franki with an electronic keyboard, one of five donated by Camberwell Grammar School to Children's Homes, and also donated $800 they raised from a sausage sizzle to Bella, leader of the very successful Silat Club, to support the group.

Any of our supporters who have travelled the long winding road from Denpasar to Singaraja in the north will know how long the journey takes. This trip was undertaken weekly by our BCF team, often on the same day.

The new Bali Children Foundation northern office is officially open after a very generous donation by one of our kind supporters. The Tony McIntyre Centre in Banjar provides excellent working space for our Northern Coordinator, Wayan, teachers, teacher aides and students. It has also provided the opportunity to engage with valuable volunteer support.

Thank you Angus for making this possible.

A huge thank you to all our supporters and volunteers who have helped to improve the lives of so many children. We hope you have a wonderful and peaceful festive season and we look forward to working with you next year to increase the help we can give to the disadvantaged children in Bali.